Policies, procedures, and general philosophy

• Inspectors must always carry identification. 

1. The first form of ID is the IR (Inspection Request) which contains all information about who is who

2. Inspector’s ID card, issued by SEER

3. Business cards.

• Inspectors do not necessarily need to make appointments (except in cases of battered women’s shelters, private homes where an interior inspection is ordered, and where specifically requested).
   

• Inspectors are expected to be professional and courteous at all times.
   

• We are paid by the stop, not by the form, and the fee is generally a flat rate.  We are paid to tell what is at a location.  In extreme cases, please call in for fee adjustment or advice. 
   

• Inspectors are expected to make a reasonable effort at street level to locate insured before calling SEER.  This means calling the insured, calling the agent, stopping at fire stations or other information sources.  Call everyone at the street level, but not the underwriter.  That is our job once basic sources are exhausted.  All properties can be found; we just need to find the right person.  Make reasonable accommodations.  Remember, our competition will have no problem finding it and making us look incompetent.
   

• We know the information we receive is not perfect.  That is why we have a job.  As one underwriting manager told us, “if everything was perfect, we wouldn’t need you.”  So we are happy to be the problem solvers.  If you are highly irritated by frequent bad information, perhaps you are in the wrong business, because we are paid to straighten out misinformation and set the record straight.  We are the explainers and problem solvers.
   

• Do not ask associates or employees for sensitive or confidential information, such as gross receipts.  If the principal is not available, call later or refer it to our office for follow-up
   

• Wrong address procedure:
  
  - Insured told me the place is elsewhere
  Call us. We need to get authorization to inspect the new location.
  
  
  - Insured told me he also has Address B insured next door, or across
  town. Do I inspect it also?
  Not at this time. We were ordered to inspect Address A. If insured
  also has Address B, mention it in your report, but do not inspect. The
  company may be asking for a sampling and chose Address A. If we mention
  Address B they have the option of ordering a full inspection or not.
  
  
  - Address does not exist:
  Call insured. Call agent. Maybe there was a typo. Maybe the street
  ends here but continues on the other side of this block. Call us if you
  cannot resolve it at the street level. Expend reasonable effort.
  
  
  - Address does not exist, and you cannot get resolution. Insured does
  not answer phone or return calls, agent is unreachable or doesn't know.
  Turn it in with explanation of your efforts. You will be paid a fair
  price for the effort. Nobody likes a dud.
  
  
  If the wrong place was inspected (it can happen) our action depends on
  two conditions:
  - has the report been written and submitted?
  - or has it not?
  
  
  If it has NOT been submitted and we discover it is a bad location
  before the narrative is sent, we send it out for a redo, inspector's
  fee depending on whose fault it is (if it is a clerical error in
  back-office, we pay him again… it is not his fault. If the inspector
  made the mistake, we ask him to redo at his expense). For the
  report, we clear the narrative input form of information results and
  re-enter the correct information. Our charge to our client is the
  same, unless they caused the bad location with bad info that they
  later corrected. Fees depend on work performed in these cases. We
  only want to reimburse the field inspector.
  
  
  If it HAS been submitted, we would not know it was the wrong location
  until the client returns to us and notifies us of the mistake, or
  asks for clarification (doesn't match what they have, or doesn't
  match old photos, or the agent has personal experience with the
  property, etc.) In that case, we Duplicate the IR making a new IR,
  and send it back to the field.
  
  
  Charges depend on who is at fault for the bad address: If it is
  -our fault, we pay the inspector and do not charge the client.
  -inspector's fault, we do not pay the inspector, and do not charge the client;
  -the company's fault (sent us to the wrong place, or we actually did the correct place and we can substantiate it) we pay the inspector, and charge the client.
   

• Clarifying information:  if you correct misinformation of any kind on the request, such as street number, please tell us “how you know” so we can explain.  For example, if the IR asks for 507 and you inspect 509, unless you explain that you met the insured and he verified that the address on the IR is a typo and is actually 509, the company is probably going to ask us why we inspected the wrong place.  So any corrections must have some sort of explanation of why they were corrected.  Always tell how you know something.  It is not that we don’t believe you, it just saves time up front.
   

• ALWAYS note the name of the person you talked to.
   

• Photographs: A front and sometimes rear photo of properties are standard
  parts of field inspections. If a pool is present, it is always
  photographed. Other hazards are photographed as well, to document
  recommendations. Exceptions: with properties that have extreme damage or
  many instance of damage, only a sampling will be done; it is redundant to
  show every instance of graffiti, where one photo can show it is extant.
  Photos are included in the base price.